[cntainer]

I expect a plumber to give me an estimate of time and cost for his "tasks" before starting work. Even if he doesn't tell me the exact cost upfront he'll still be able to tell me roughly if he'll be done in 2-3 hours or less/more.

If I have a big project and I'm dealing with a plumbing company I might not be talking directly to the plumbers but to their manager. The manager will usually ask for time/complexity estimates from his plumbers before sending me a quote. The manager will usually factor into the quote any risks plus the company's profit margin.

There's a lot of talk about agile, scrum, no-estimates and so on, but a big part of the software industry still works with time estimates and budgets communicated up front.